Suspect in Texas college stabbings had dreams of success, bloodshed, some say

By Catherine E. Shoichet, Joe Sutton and Ben Brumfield CNN

Updated 9:51 AM ET, Wed April 10, 2013

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Photos:Photos: 14 wounded in Lone Star College stabbing

14 wounded in Lone Star College stabbing – Harris County sheriff's officers seal off the campus after at least 14 people were injured in a stabbing incident at the CyFair campus of Lone Star College in Cypress, Texas, on Tuesday, April 9. The community college in northwest Houston was on lockdown and police detained student Dylan Quick, 20.

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Photos:Photos: 14 wounded in Lone Star College stabbing

14 wounded in Lone Star College stabbing – A victim is taken from the scene on a stretcher.

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Photos:Photos: 14 wounded in Lone Star College stabbing

14 wounded in Lone Star College stabbing – A victim is loaded onto a helicopter.

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Photos:Photos: 14 wounded in Lone Star College stabbing

14 wounded in Lone Star College stabbing – Steven Maida told CNN he was among a group of students that chased the suspect, tackled him and pinned him down until authorities arrived. He posted ths photos of the suspect on the ground.

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Overcoming obstacles

Quick was born deaf and received a cochlear implant at age 7, CNN affiliate KPRC reported. An article on how he overcame challenges early in life appeared on a Lone Star student blog the first week of April.

The implant gave him the ability to hear, but he had to play catch-up to learn how to speak English. His mother homeschooled him and got him involved in Lone Star's library programs, when he was a teen, according to KPRC.

Quick became a voracious reader and developed a close connection with the school northwest of Houston, where he later became a student, the affiliate said. He was planning to finish his associate's degree there and transfer to the University of Houston to study accounting.

The young man dreamed of starting a book club. But Quick had also been harboring a darker dream, police said.

Authorities: The rampage was premeditated

Quick told investigators he had fantasies of killing people and had been planning the attack for some time, sheriff's officials said late Tuesday. Quick used "a razor-type knife" to stab his victims, they added.

"According to the statement the suspect voluntarily gave investigators, he has had fantasies of stabbing people to death since he was in elementary school," a statement from the Harris County Sheriff's Office said.

Quick has been charged with three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, said Donna Hawkins of the Harris County Prosecutor's Office.

Two of those injured remained hospitalized in critical condition late Tuesday, said Kathryn Klein, a spokeswoman for the Memorial Hermann Texas Trauma Institute.

Witnesses described a chaotic scene. Bleeding victims collapsed to the ground. Students and teachers ran for cover. Some sprang into action, chasing after the assailant and helping the wounded.

Cassie Foe was in the school's nursing lab when she heard a scream coming from the hallway.

Moments later, the nursing student put her training into action, placing pressure on a wound in a stabbing victim's neck.

"It just seemed like he was just going around, basically getting whoever was more open and easiest for him to reach," Foe told CNN's Anderson Cooper on Tuesday.

Steven Maida said he saw so many people swarming that he thought it was a campus tour. Then, he saw them running and heard someone say, "My friend's been stabbed."

Maida said he saw blood on a stairway and several injured victims.

"I just took off downstairs running," he said. He was looking for the attacker.

Maida described joining a group of students who chased the suspect, tackled him and pinned him down until authorities arrived.

"I couldn't run the other way like everyone else was," he said.

A bloody spree

Harris County Sheriff's Deputy Thomas Gilliland said authorities received an initial report that the suspect had been wrestled to the ground by a student before campus police arrested him.

At least one injured victim had what appeared to be the blade of a box cutter or an X-Acto knife sticking out of her cheek, student Melody Vinton told CNN affiliate KHOU.

Vinton said she had just left her chemistry class when she saw the attacker stabbing people, aiming at their necks and faces.

Soon, she was trying to help victims, ripping a paper towel dispenser off a bathroom wall to get enough paper to help stem the bleeding.

"I turned around, and there was just blood. Just blood dripping down the stairs, all over the floor, all over everyone's towels on their necks. Just a lot of blood," told KHOU.

Lockdown

The school was on lockdown Tuesday afternoon while authorities combed the campus to ensure no other injured people or attackers were there, Harris County sheriff's spokesman Alan Bernstein said.

While authorities investigated, teachers and students huddled together in locked rooms, said Marianna Sviland, a teacher who was in a faculty workroom at the time of the stabbing.

"Outside the window, I saw cops running around. I saw students running, and I realized something was going on," she said. "It was scary."